NHTSA Complaint #11444468 — 2019 MAZDA CX-5

At about noon on 12/19/21 I was approaching the Tappan Zee (Mario Cuomo) Bridge in New York State going west. My car briefly stopped accelerating when I put my foot on the gas pedal but then continued on as normal. No warning lights or other signs of trouble appeared, and I continued onto the bridge and was in the center lane. There was moderate traffic on the bridge. Suddenly, my car started shaking and slowing as if the brakes were being pumped (although I did not put my foot on the brake), and the messages "Front Radar Sensor System Malfunction" "Forward Smart City Brake Malfunction" and "Smart Brake System Malfunction" all flashed on the dashboard screen. My husband turned on the emergency flashers and took a photo of the screen. The car continued slowing down and shaking no matter how hard I pressed the gas pedal. This created an incredibly dangerous situation; I had to get over to the right lane as we continued losing speed, and find somewhere safe to pull over once we got off the bridge. A car or truck going at a normal speed could have easily hit us and caused a catastrophic crash on the bridge. If I could not get out of the center lane quickly, at the rate the car was slowing down, it would have come to a complete stop in the middle of the roadway. I was able to merge right, get across the bridge and get to an exit, all as the car continued lurching and slowing down. At the bottom of the exit, there was a red light; I stopped and turned the car off and back on again. When I tried to accelerate out of the stop, smoke began pouring off the wheels. The car moved across the intersection at a few miles per hour and I was able to pull over safely on the right shoulder on the other side of the intersection. I had only bought the car the previous day, less than 16 hours before the incident. I called Mazda Roadside Assistance and the dealership; the dealership told me to have the car towed to their service department, so I did.